Lightfest

Light is the god of creation and beginnings, whose power is said to have brought Idenau into being and provided his namesake by which people can view the world. Although he is associated with spring and renewal, his festival is in midwinter to provide hope and celebrate the warmth and love that will help people get through the rest of the cold season. Lightfest marks the new year in Idenau and incorporates many elements of a joyous midwinter festival.

Exchanging presents is a big part of Lightfest. The original idea was that, in the spirit of Light, people should create personalized gifts from the heart. Due to time constraints, over the years the concept has evolved so that most gifts given are store-bought. However, many people try hard to make at least some handcrafted gifts for the people they love.

Religiously, Lightfest is a huge day, with the devout attending ceremonies on Lightfest Eve as well as Lightfest itself to thank the gods and pray for an early spring. Traditionally, creation stories, verses about the necessary roles of each god, and other myths are read during the services. There are many traditional hymns and secular songs associated with Lightfest as well.

Lightfest decorations are very distinctive and include decking homes with evergreen plants to remind people of the spring to come. To honor the god, it is also a festival of light; enchanted candles and other magical glowing objects of many colors decorate the inside and outside of houses. In recent decades in New Idenau, technological improvement has seen the rise of electrical lights for those with less access to magic. “Bright Lightfest!” is the common phrase of well-wishing that people utter during the holiday season.

Discussion (21) ¬

Light? So he’s one of the 2 unnamed male gods, eh? So I think now we have all of their names, save one, Havoc, Norma, Lax, Medi, Light, and…..Dark?
So who exactly participates in Lightfest?
Is there some equivalent to Valentine’s Day? If there is, I’m guessing it’ll be named Medifest.

Nah, Medifest isn’t like that. I don’t think Idenau really has a Commercialization of Love and Guilt-trip Yourself into Getting a Gift for your Significant Other and Make Single People feel really Crappy day. But I dunno, I may recant that. I will put that holiday into Idenau just so Ecta can tease Davis about being single again, so help me…

I get where you’re coming from though, and I also know Christmas has a way of making people depressed, which makes me sad in turn. I know it manages to make me simultaneously more melancholy and more happy than any other time of the year.

It definitely is my favorite time of year, though. In fact, I have an obsession. What I love is that so many traditions have all gotten thrown together in one crazy mix. And these days we have “modern myths” like Scrooge and even more recent ones: Frosty and Rudolph and the Grinch and modern representations of Santa, that all build on each other. Of course you get the people who think that the season belongs exclusively to one religion, when in reality it’s this blend of ancient and contemporary cultural heritage and a celebration that everyone should be free to partake in.

Of course, the commercialization makes me sad as well. Even though I did spend a lot of money this weekend because it’s the first time I’ve ever been able to >_>; but as I went shopping, I was struck by this powerful disillusion with the knowledge that the shopping and stress is really the biggest part of the season for some people (or on the other side, for businesspeople and CEOs, devising how to best take advantage of the holidays and manipulate people into buying things).

Of course commercialism is, to some extent, a problem in Idenau too… as in many ways we like to keep Idenau relatable to readers in our world. But there is the caveat that more people honestly do try to make handmade gifts.

Bah! Humbug! Holidays schmolidays.
I also know the religious significance of how around 5-10 different religions hold some important figure’s birthday on the 25th (just like some cookie cutter god of sorts). However, Christmas was and still is just a holiday for a few religions and people, but it has changed over the years through different stories and myths to what we know today (as you pointed out), possibly to encompass everyone so that there is less singling out or more likely just because that is how some things change (think Halloween, Easter, or Valentines). It is still something that a lot of people don’t partake in due to religion or location (i.e. Kwanzaa or other countries). Like I said, I am not a fan of the whole concept. Pessimism, ho!

Naw, I respect your desire not to participate as much as I believe anyone should celebrate on December 25 if they want to. But I am one of those people that plays Christmas music starting on Thanksgiving or before.

Heh, between the picture and your response to Hello Jello, Skärva increasingly seems rather less actually evil than he might like one to think.

*ahem* Lightfest seems cool. (Well, except perhaps in Idenau’s southern hemisphere, should it have such a thing (or some sufficiently similar phenomenon); there I suppose that it’s the hottest event of the year!) ;P